The Little Book of Vaginas: Everything You Need to Know

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Photographing this intimate area led to some unique and deeply personal stories. “Each one has stayed with me,” she says. “The 46-year-old virgin. The woman who endured FGM. The woman who had her vagina removed because of cancer.” Why is this book not a must read for everyone who owns a vagina and everyone who does not own a vagina but hopes to have a partner who will share hers? The biology is important to Naomi Wolf's argument, as is the chemistry, but if you don't like that sort of thing, ignore it and focus on The Goddess Array. What woman does not wish to be treated according to the Goddess Array? If treating a woman that way makes her happier, healthier and more willing to share (I mean her life, not just her vagina), then what man in his right mind would not be willing to study the Goddess Array, learn it and apply it throughout his life?

If the outer lips are short, they may not meet and may expose the inner lips more prominently. Inner lips Mishori R, Ferdowsian H, Naimer K, Volpellier M, McHale T. The little tissue that couldn’t – dispelling myths about the Hymen’s role in determining sexual history and assault. Reprod Health. 2019;16(1). doi:10.1186/s12978-019-0731-8 Other times she makes inarticulate statements that don't seem to relate to her topic, and somehow still gets things wrong, here's a fun example where I bet no one else will call her on: Perhaps no television show has done quite so much to put vaginas at the forefront of its agenda than Sex and the City. Running for six seasons from 1998 until 2004, the show unashamedly spoke about the vaginas and desires of its four stars, in particular Samantha Jones, the sexual savant who declared, “My vagina waits for no man.” Underneath all of this disgust (and no kidding, I had lots!) are some ideas which resonated for me, and which are worth discussion. This is the reason I'm conflicted about this book: although Wolf gets lots wrong, and overgeneralizes to the point of laughability, she brushes up on ideas that are interesting.

Uterus: The uterus is located in the lower belly area between the hips (pelvis), through the vagina just past the cervix. It's also called the womb. The uterus is where a fetus develops during pregnancy. The uterus has three layers of muscle and is one of the strongest muscles in the body. This silly and maddening book talks a lot about a vagina-brain connection. This confused me, but then again, my vagina never transmitted messages to me from my cervix, so this was obviously new territory for me. https://www.brighamandwomens.org/obgyn/infertility-reproductive-surgery/congenital-anomalies/vagina-anomalies She tries her best to use some odd combination of science, mysticism, literature and cultural history to explain this to her readers. She speaks fondly and nauseatingly about the painfully cutesy “Goddess Array”, which she considers to be the set of behaviors a lover uses to arouse his or her partner. All of this in the name of making sex pathetically romantic for feminism! Honestly, the last section of the book, which read effectively like scientifically-justified Cosmo advice for male heterosexual lovers, was maybe the most promising. Was it cliched and one-size-fits-all advice that will vary in effectiveness when applied to actual specific women? Totally. Did some of it sound accurate to me, a heterosexual cisgender woman with Opinions on how I would like to be treated by a man? Yep. That chapter would be interesting reading to share with a male relationship partner, although various relationship self-help books have likely covered the same ground with more or less success.

In her conclusion she tells the story of seeing a forest fire near Petra (while vacationing in Greece). While watching the fire she realized that "the original sin did not, as the Judeo-Christian tradition has it, originate in human sexuality. Our species' original sin was in deviating from our earliest tradition of reverence for the feminine and for female sexuality". Ludwin A, et al. (2020). Longitudinal vaginal septum: a proposed classification and surgical management [Abstract].

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When I initially started this I was immediately fascinated and ultimately just content someone was throwing facts about the vagina at me. Facts that I’ve only just discovered because no one talks about them, and facts that actually make sense to me - from women’s neural wiring to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). She accounts to the differences in female sexual response that is honestly very validating to hear, considering women are often told fat lies about how and how not to orgasm, what’s right and wrong with the orgasm, etc - often told by their sexual partners who got their so called “facts” from porn. Naomi, you’re seriously starting to turn me into a raging bitch with this two dimensional woman whose very fulfillment relies on a man's ability to remember her favorite flowers. Kothari C, Diorio C, Durocher F. The importance of breast adipose tissue in breast cancer. Int J Mol Sci. 2020;21(16):5760. doi:10.3390/ijms21165760 Perhaps surprisingly, the genre to speak most explicitly about the vagina through cinematic history has been horror. While romantic films may lean on the tasteful pan away at their stars’ most intimate moments, horror movies have frequently placed the vagina centre stage. In these films, it becomes a symbol of frightening power.

The show was designed to appeal to the generation of women who “had it all”, juggling holding down successful careers, enjoying exciting sex, dressing like fashionistas, and starting families. Though very much of its time, Sex and the City’s influence can still be felt today, with shows such as Girls and Broad City undoubtedly owing something of their success to the blueprint laid down by Carrie and the girls. When an unexpected medical crisis sends Naomi Wolf on a deeply personal journey to tease out the intersections between sexuality and creativity, she discovers, much to her own astonishment, an increasing body of scientific evidence that suggests that the vagina is not merely flesh, but an intrinsic component of the female brain—and thus has a fundamental connection to female consciousness itself. It’s very easy to do bad science. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver very recently did a whole bit on this. So a science writer has a duty to her readers to distinguish between reliable and potentially unreliable or flawed studies. Perhaps at this point I need to establish my bona fides as a man. I am a husband of 43 years, father of three, grandfather of 7. I was an infantry platoon leader in the 101st Airborne in Vietnam. Since then, I have been a bicycle racer, a coach and a scoutmaster. When I read "Vagina", I realized that, simply put, I could have easily treated my wife better, making both of us happier throughout our marriage by making the Goddess Array a part of our everyday lives. What woman does not want candles and flowers, to be touched lovingly, to have her man look deeply into her eyes and tell her every day how much she is loved and valued and how beautiful she seems to him. What woman does not want to be taken seriously, to truly be listened to when she speaks and to be treated with decency and honor?Why do American Men treat their women like Goddesses when they are courting them and then ignore them, denigrate them and treat them like the hired help after the honeymoon? I continued having pain, but I kept being told it was normal. It turned out I have endometriosis, uterine polyps and fibroids, which was a blow on top of a missing ovary. The really big deal was finding out that if I waited too long, I would be unlikely to conceive naturally, if at all.Throughout the decades, the vagina on screen has held the power to scare and enthral in equal measure. But audiences’ thirst for stories that show the vagina’s power with the sense of reverence that it deserves remains unsated. Look, it is possible that Wolf is right and semen does have such properties. But because of the way she presents these ideas, by conflating possibly-unreliable scientific studies with anecdotal and unquestionably flawed stories, we cannot, responsibly, accept her conclusion. So I’m not saying she’s wrong about semen, or about Tantra, or about vaginal pulses. I’m just saying that her writing undermines the credibility of her explanations. This is not a scientific book; it is a heavily opinionated book masquerading as scientific, and that is something else entirely. I was afraid of penises my whole life. First I wanted to have one. Then I entered puberty and my breasts grew, and I knew there was no way I was going to be a boy. Then I was hurt by penises. I was molested by my father and I had teenage interactions with boys who put pressure on me. The idea that women are turning away from pleasure because they’re worried about what they look, smell and taste like has unearthed a fundamental message for Laura.